Chamber Promotes ‘Game Changers’

Officials with the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce say West Virginia’s leaders could change the state’s future, in big ways, by addressing five key areas.

The five so called "Game Changers" they say, are education, fair courts, energy, health care and transportation and infrastructure.

Chamber President Steve Roberts focused on education during an appearance on Tuesday’s MetroNews Talkline. Almost half of West Virginia’s general revenue budget goes to education.

Still, "We are not keeping up. We are seeing our test scores consistently coming in somewhere between 44th and 49th among all of the states," Roberts said.

"Whether you have children in school or not is not really the question. The question is, how is our investment doing?"

Those in the state Department of Education are currently working on a response to a comprehensive audit of West Virginia’s education system, released earlier this year.

Roberts says large scale changes need to happen and he’s not sure in the current Legislature will take those steps.

"The Legislature, individually, is made up of decent people but, collectively, they go the route of their constituents," he said.

"We have more school teachers and school service personnel serving in the Legislature than we have from any other walk of life." Roberts says the result is the status quo, not an education system that means the demands of the current economy.

For more on the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s "Game Changers," you can go to www.wvchamber.com.